Do christians have to eat kosher butchered meat?

If you will, let me explain what this verse means in the context of the whole chapter of Acts 15. Please bear with me as I paraphrase the chapter.

At the beginning of Acts 15 there were Jewish christians teaching that "outsiders", Gentiles who were saved, had to be circumcised too, or that their salvation was not valid.

This made Paul and Barnabas very, very mad and they got into arguments with others over it. So they all decided that Paul and Barnabas should go to Jerusalem to debate this issue with the apostles and elders there.

On their way there, they told everyone that they met how "outsiders", Gentiles, were being saved and Jewish christians all around were rejoicing. But when they got to Jerusalem, there was a group of Jewish christians who would NOT let it go that Gentiles must be circumcised to be saved. The bible says that there was much fighting over this legalistic issue.

Finally, Peter, who was in Jerusalem told everyone that God, Himself, had chosen for the Gentiles to hear the truth and be saved and that God, Himself, knows their hearts, and gave those saved Gentiles the Holy Spirit. He said that God saw no difference in a saved Jew nor a saved Gentile because it was the heart that needed purification, not the body.

He continued saying that why were those legalistic christians trying to tempt God (or to overrule Him) by adding unnecessary behaviors to one's salvation, when neither they, the Jews nor their forefathers could keep any of those rules themselves, in the first place!

The bible says that the arguing and fighting crowd became silent! Peter turned the floor over to Paul and Barnabas who explained what wondrous miracles God was doing in the lives of Gentiles.

Then Paul and Barnabas turned the floor over to James who was also there. James was so impressed by Peter's words that he repeated them to the crowd and then.....

......in true Baptist form.....he made a motion from the floor!!! :laugh: :laugh:

He said "I move that we don't bother these Gentiles with legalities that don't mean a thing to their salvation. I so move that we simply tell them to keep away from idolatry, sexually immorality, and keep away from strangled meat and blood products."

Everyone was happy with that and they went back to their own towns and sent lengthy letters to all the churches teaching that circumcision was not a required for salvation.....and that more importantly, abstaining from idolatry, sexually immorality, and blood products was going to be the rule of thumb.

They all got a renewed sense of excitement and began preaching mightily again.

Yet, at the end of chapter 15, Paul and Barnabas, themselves, had a big fight over whether or not to take John Mark with them on their preaching circuit and they parted ways with Paul taking Silas and Barnabas taking John Mark.

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With all that paraphrase being said, to answer your question.....no, it is not require for christians to eat only kosher meat.

These requirements for clean living were simply a way for these Jewish christians who were still very deeply entrenched in Levitical law, to reconcile their acceptance of these Gentile christians.

Many, many of these Jewish christians still observed dietary laws of the OT even after being saved. Peter, himself, did until God explained that it was not necessary.

If those Jews wanted to ask the Gentiles to try and not partake of strangled meats or blood products and with them NOT attaching that stipulation to their salvation in any way, I see this simply as a very early "tradition of men" issue in the early church.

This admonishment is not for christians today and is was not a "law" for Gentile christians then. Neither Paul nor Barnabas nor Peter nor Silas went door-to-door investigating what these people ate.

It was just a suggestion, based on that's what many of the Jewish christians were still doing.

 

Why would they want to? :laugh: :laugh:

We have an awful form of that saugage here in Louisiana made with blood and other horrible things - it's called boudin (boo-dan). It's gross!

If they want to, sure. Remember that these early Jewish christians had hundreds of years of indoctrination with the law and with isolating themselves from Gentiles.

It wasn't easy coming together and learning to accept each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Sometimes, the "old ways" would creep in.

The whole purpose of the law was to show you that you were not perfect enough to keep it, just like Peter told all of those Jewish christians. It was an impossible hurdle to jump over - trying to keep all of those laws.

Ultimately it turned people to God seeing how helpless they were to try and be "perfect".

No, they don't. It was very hard for some of them to wrap their mind around that fact.

No, there is no difference. Some Jewish christians still observe some cultural traditions such as some Sabbath rituals, but they do not do these things for salvation - just tradition. Just like some Gentile christians don't eat meat on Fridays, even though they recognize now that doesn't have anything to do with salvation - it's just a habit they still keep.

No christian, neither Jewish nor Gentile, since the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago has to "worry" about OT laws.

It's important that we all read them as part of our bible study.

Even though we aren't bound to them, there are many inspirational and educational things to learn. We see how God cared for his people even by teaching them things as basic as hygiene laws. We see pictures of Jesus and foreshadowings of Jesus in the ceremonial laws. And we get our basic concepts of morality from them.

There are not "laws" anymore, but they are still God's Word and He can still be found on the pages of the OT.

 

Hi, Bob....

I won't challenge that point. I'll just add that I also find boiled cabbage extremely foul to the point that I don't know why a sane person would want to eat it and I know that God doesn't forbid that food item.

Same thing goes for dill pickles. :laugh:

Well, if we are going to eat only kosher food items, in joyful concurrence of the law, then we are also going to have to stone our sons to death when they are rebellious and burn our daughters alive when they are promiscuous. You will also have to slaughter animals in sacrifice for your sins.

Paul also said in Hebrews 8 that "In that he saith a new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away."

Yes, God's law is printed in our minds and hearts. But, to me, all that means is that only the spiritual/moral principles of the law still apply - just read the Sermon on the Mount and you will see.